Nathan

Here's something to keep you exasperated for a while: http://www.governmentisgood.com By the way, in the spirit of this Government is Good website, I just protected your computer by posting this link, because if I hadn't, you would have thrown your monitor out the window and peed all over the cpu. Where would you be without me?

I have gold and silver coins. People used silver coins prior to 1964. Any quarter you find that is 1964 or earlier is made of silver. People used gold coins prior to the nationalization of the currency in 1913. I suspect that whenever the dollar does collapse, I can simply use the gold/silver coins I have to pay for things, or deposit them in a bank and use some kind of digital currency that represents the gold or silver I deposited.

So people shouldn't state their opinions because they might be wrong or criticized? I guess I shouldn't have stated my opinions and skepticism about anarchism on this board back when I first discovered FDR, because now someone can go back and criticize my posts from 7 yrs ago.

Not only that, but the video conveniently leaves out the following caveats prefacing statements he changed his mind about 5 years ago: This video, and a lot of memes and other nonsense out there on Facebook and Youtube are just a new, exasperating yet creative way to be a troll.

Wendy McElroy

You wouldn't be asking this if it were not ok with you. I think that's important and say exactly this to her. Then see how you feel about her response (relieved, visible, invisible, frustrated, angry, happy, sad etc), then, tell her those feelings.

Would some one help me understand why getting a small amount (small compared to what?) is frowned upon? At what amount would it not be frowned upon? Perhaps I just need to be in "those shoes" to understand. It's not that I don't empathize with the feeling but I'm not understanding it's source nor can I envision myself feeling that way over a small donation or tip. Conversely, I don't understand why this dynamic exists to the degree that others would use it to say "fuck you" to another person. As in, "he was a shitter waiter so I'm leaving him my two cents, literally." Put it this way, it's as foreign to me as some one saying "bless you" or whatever in response to a sneeze. I'm being dense, yes? I don't know if you live in the U.S. but leaving a very small tip is often considered more of a statement than leaving no tip at all. It's also kind of passive aggressive. I can see why too, because it ensures that the waiter is not under the impression that you simply forgot. Again, if you look at this from Stef's point of view, he's living off donations. If I were living from donation to donation, or even depending on the timely payment of clients for my work just so that I could pay the bills, I would look in my inbox, see the e-mail about a donation, feel momentarily excited and then be a bit disappointed at the amount. All Stef "said" was a fucking sad face with a caveat that he doesn't want to sound ungreatful and apparently that was enough for overwhelming vitriol, stabby memes and flow charts. Yes digging, trolly flow charts based on a total straw man. That kind of overreaction is not the reaction of people who have a high level of self-awareness or empathy. Surely, for at least some of those people, Stef had earned at least a little curiosity before jumping to narratives, foregone conclusions and cold, calculated attacks. As someone who is a little critical of Stef's due diligence in research citations, you can't claim I'm saying this because I'm some mindless sycophant.

Going through all this is exhausting. I think I have posted plenty of examples here of what I was talking about on the Sunday show. Again, my only intention is to help improve the quality, consistency and integrity of your presentations so that hopefully you can gain some ground in the skeptic and secular communities.

Uncited. Where did they get their data? "...new government sources reveal" without a link is not exactly good journalism. Again, wouldn't be surprised if it's true, but it comes from a really badly designed website and they don't cite where they got this info from. For all anyone knows they made it up. May want to google this and find out if there are other sources.

Original source unknown. It's not that I can't believe it but this guy did not even mention where this data came from.

This is fine but here's the primary source article the author of that article failed to link: http://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/SD25-2-2004E.pdf?

This one is fine, but you might want to add his original source since he didn't link it, a book available here: http://www.amazon.com/Canadian-Priorities-Agenda-Economic-Well-being/dp/0886452031

This blogger's source link is broken. I'm sure it's right but who knows now? Maybe it was moved.

Barbara Defoe Whitehead has a PhD in History. I don't know where she's getting this info. There are no citations. Is she making it up as she writes? Why would the Atlantic not post footnotes or a bibliography?